Analysis of appropriateness in a speech act of request in L2 English

Taguchi, Naoko

doi:10.1075/prag.16.4.05tag

Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 16:4 (2006) ► pp.513–533

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Analysis of appropriateness in a speech act of request in L2 English

Naoko Taguchi

Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

Published online: 1 December 2006

https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.16.4.05tag

Fifty-nine Japanese college students of English at two different proficiency levels were evaluated for their ability to produce a speech act of request in a spoken role play task. Learners’ production was analyzed quantitatively by rating performance on a six-point scale for overall appropriateness, as well as qualitatively by identifying the directness levels of the linguistic expressions used to produce requests. Results revealed a significant L2 proficiency influence on overall appropriateness, but only a marginal difference in the types of linguistic expressions used between the two proficiency groups. Moreover, grammatical and discourse control encoded in the rating scale seemed to have affected the quality of speech acts.

Keywords: Appropriateness of speech act production, L2 pragmatic competence

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